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Aphrodisias Turkey, Hellenistic city of Love.

Aphrodisias. Turkey. View of decorative architectural fragments and western colonnaded portico of the South Agora, a public square dating from the 1st century AD. In the background are the remains of the large vaulted halls of the baths of Roman Emperor Hadrian who visited the city in the 2nd century AD.

Aphrodisias. Turkey. View of the Temple of Aphrodite, which dates from the 1st century BC. Built of marble, the temple of Ionic order has 14 columns standing of its original 38 (8 by 13). In the 2nd century AD the temple was enclosed by colonnaded court. The temple was converted into a Byzantine Christian basilica in the 5th century which has helped preserved the remains.

The ancient city of Aphrodisias is one of the most rewarding and atmospheric Greco-Roman archaeological sites in Turkey.
Aphrodisias lies in the Maeander river basin, near the modern village of Geyre in the South Western Turkish province of Aydin,

Aphrodisias was heavily influenced in antiquity by Greek Hellenistic culture and the city’s patron deity was Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and fertility.

It is believed that the site was a sacred sanctuary to Aphrodite prior to it being founded as a Greek polis (city-state) during the Hellenistic period around 3rd century BC.

The city was celebrated in antiquity for its schools of sculpture and art. Its artwork was in demand including sculptures, reliefs, portraits, sarcophagi and decorative elements.

The city’s sculptors were commissioned for work all around the Mediterranean and several of its sculptors were appointed by Roman Emperor Hadrian to work at his Villa in Tivoli Italy.

Aphrodisias. Turkey. Close-up view of the intricate artwork from a frieze that adorned the 1st century AD Portico of Tiberius. The friezes depicted portraits of various gods, goddess , theatrical characters and figures of myth and were erected on the upper part of the magnificent North colonnade at the South Agora or Portico of Tiberius.

Aphrodisias’s prosperity did not suffer with the end of the Hellenistic period. The city continued to flourish under Roman control from the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD. It was the favourite Asia minor city of Roman Emperor Augustus who reigned for 40 years between 27 BC – AD 14.

The city was never the same after several disastrous earthquakes 4th and 7th centuries. Crumbling building and infrastructure and the continued Arab invasions forced the once glorious city to be abandoned.

The ancient site has many highlights, including the Ionic Temple of Aphrodite, the Tetrapylon ceremonial gate, the stadium, which rivals the stadium at Delphi as the best preserved in the ancient world, the theatre used by Romans for gladiatorial spectacles, the marble Sebasteion (Greek for Augusteum), complex and a vast number of superbly crafted reliefs depicting Greek myths and Roman themes.

In 2017 the ancient city was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.